Doors, windows and the red curtain. The threshold as an aesthetic feature of 'Twin Peaks'

Abstract

Reflecting on Twin Peaks: The Return means seeking alternative reading keys, comparing motifs, fragments and sequences, tracing and combining obscure points of the text.
The paper intends to analyze the motif of threshold as passage, a concept both narrative (doors, windows, the red curtain) and formal (fade-outs, overlays and other techniques significantly used by Lynch), inside that space “between two worlds” that defines the series from the beginning.
The threshold is therefore intended as a central aesthetic figure in Twin Peaks, but not only; the analysis extends to other TV series which assume and reconfigure the topic, revealing and unfolding different meanings: the therapeutic setting in The Sopranos, the “hatch” in Lost, the access to other worlds in The Leftovers, Westworld and Dark. The Twin Peaks universe is considered in its dimension of seminal work of art, the paradigm of an ongoing seriality that moves beyond the boundaries of TV screen towards the authorial form of art film.